Fort Smith’s Peak Innovation Center opens to students in the River Valley

FORT SMITH — A University of Arkansas-Fort Smith program has a new home to provide college level courses to area high school students.

The Peak Innovation Center welcomed its first students Monday at 5900 Painter Lane.

The center is a collaboration between the university and Fort Smith School District. It serves roughly 280 students from 22 school districts across Crawford, Franklin, Johnson, Logan, Scott and Sebastian counties through the university’s Western Arkansas Technical Center program.

It’s the last of the school district’s Vision 2023 plan projects to be completed, which were paid for through a 5.558-mill property tax increase voters approved in May 2018 that generated roughly $121 million before expiring.

Gary Udouj, director of Career Education and District Innovation for the school district, said the center was a community effort among the area schools, businesses and industries to address skill gaps and keep students working in the River Valley after they graduate. He said it’s an opportunity for both students wanting to enter the workforce directly after graduation and those who want to receive some college credit before going into higher education.

Students can attend Peak at no charge to them, Udouj said. The district put aside $13.7 million from the millage increase and conducted fundraising for the rest, he said.

“The momentum has really grown from the building being donated to local and national organizations giving us grants, and just a lot of support. This was the Hutcheson shoe factory, and this was a warehouse that the Hutcheson family generously donated, along with about 17 acres.”

Anita Brackin, vice president of workforce development at the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, said there’s a national worker shortage for several reasons, including an aging workforce and a changing skill set. She said the Peak Innovation Center is a tool other communities don’t have and allows the chamber to entice businesses to move or expand in the Fort Smith region to recruit students that already have the training businesses need.

“We have a great workforce. If you talk to these companies, they have great employees. But they’re all working,” Brackin said.

“So if we have a company looking to locate here that has a number of jobs to fill, we need to be able to show them what we’re doing to grow our future workforce. That’s why having something like the Peak Innovation Center is now one of our stops,” she said.

The center houses courses for automation and robotics, computer integrated machining, electronics technology and industrial maintenance, emergency medical responders, medical office assistants, network engineering and unmanned aerial systems.

Students enrolled in automotive technology, computer-aided drafting and welding will remain at the university campus. The certified nursing assistant and licensed practical nursing programs will finish the spring semester at the university, but will be offered at Peak this fall.

Garry Cude, an instructor in electronics technology and unmanned aerial systems at both Peak and the university, said the Peak classes work by having students use online modules to get the base knowledge of that courses’ equipment before

“And we didn’t cheap on the equipment,” he said. “There’s actually devices here that are relevant. This is all industry standard equipment. That is transferable, so when they walk into the job site, the learning curve is a lot less steep. They already know what they’re doing.”

Emma Smith, a junior at Southside High School, said she’s excited for the newer technology provided at Peak compared to the classes she was taking through the university. She said she’s always wanted to be an engineer and taking classes through Peak allows her to narrow down what kind of engineering she wants to study in college.

“I thought that going into it, I wanted to drive robots and do all that — and that is really awesome — but I’ve found that I like working on circuit boards more,” she said. “It definitely looks great on applications, but it’s opened my eyes to different colleges such as UAFS and how awesome their engineering program is.”

Udouj said the Peak classes have morning and afternoon sessions so students attend before or after their core classes at their high schools. He said the School District starts in middle school with having students take career connection courses and aptitude tests to see what kind of careers they’re interested and skilled in.

“We want all of our students to graduate with a skill set and a plan. The earlier we can start that, the more relevant it’s going to be for the student, and the more opportunities it’s going to present,” he said.

“Students will have that opportunity to take a deeper dive into the areas that they’re interested in, and, if we do it right, they can graduate with a lot of college hours under their belt. Eventually, we’d like to have them graduating with an associate’s degree if possible. That’s one of our longer term goals.”